Articles Posted in Sex Crimes

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A man charged with second degree Criminal Sexual Conduct (CSC) in Ann Arbor successfully avoided jail time and conviction on the charge as filed. The accused was originally arraigned on the CSC 2nd degree charge on July 29, 2020. The charge was a result of an investigation into a complaint from a 10-year-old girl who was under the care of the accused. The allegation was that the victim was touched in a sexual way by the accused while being cared for by the accused in the home of the accused.

What are the penalties for 2nd degree Criminal Sexual Conduct in Michigan?

The potential consequences for second degree Criminal Sexual Conduct in Michigan are severe. CSC 2 is a felony that cannot be expunged. If convicted, you could be sent to state prison for up to 15 years. A conviction also requires that the defendant registers as a sex offender under Michigan’s Sex Offender Registry Act (SORA). If the victim was less than 13 years old and the defendant was at least 17 years old, as in the case above, then the convicted defendant will be required to wear an electronic monitoring device for a lifetime. The convicted defendant must also pay for the cost of that monitoring device.

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While no statistics are readily available to answer this question, anecdotal evidence suggests that human trafficking is more common in Oakland County Michigan than most people realize or want to admit. This contention is informed by a recent press announcement by Oakland County Prosecuting Attorney Karen McDonald.

Ms. McDonald addressed the media when announcing a significant human trafficking bust in Madison Heights, a suburb of Detroit Michigan. During this press conference, Ms. McDonald indicated that her new administration had formed Oakland County’s first ever human trafficking unit. Furthermore, that under her administration, rather than assemble a special drug unit, her administration will focus on the identification, investigation, interdiction, and prosecution of those involved in human trafficking.

This public announcement comes days after Michigan’s Attorney General announced Michigan’s Human Trafficking Commission’s 2020 Annual Report.  This 20-page report, available online, explains the framework under which Michigan’s Human Trafficking Commission operates, and a summary of the Commission’s work in 2020.

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If you have been accused of a sex crime in Michigan, based on any one of the many sexual offenses contained in Michigan’s criminal laws involving sex assault, then you are probably wondering how to win your case or avoid the worse penalties including SORA registration and lengthy incarceration.

This is especially true if you’re facing false allegations, which unfortunately are common in the reporting of sex crimes. In Michigan allegations of sex crimes often come up in context of divorce. False memories can also sometimes result in false sex crimes allegations.

While there are many ways to obtain an optimal outcome, an important issue in sexual assault cases, or what Michigan broadly calls “criminal sexual conduct,” is to address the issue of force.

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If someone calls the police to report a rape case in Michigan, it will immediately be taken very seriously. Police have a duty to thoroughly investigate claims of rape, known as “Criminal Sexual Conduct,” under Michigan law. If you’re being accused of rape, an experienced Michigan rape attorney will be able to take some of the unknown out of the situation and advise as to what will happen next and the best steps to take to avoid a criminal sexual conduct charge being filed.

Police Will First Meet with the Accuser

After the initial call to the police, the case will be assigned to a detective with sex crimes investigative training and experience. The detective will ask the accuser to meet- usually at the accuser’s home or at the police department- to discuss the claim in person. The detective will want to obtain the “who, what, where, and when” of the claim. Who did it? Who else was there? What exactly happened? Where did it happen? When did it happen?

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Pornography has never been easier to access. Anyone with a smart phone can readily obtain all kinds of pornography. While porn sites are often clearly named, such as Pornhub, other platforms containing pornographic images are less obvious and include many kinds of social media, such as such common apps like Tumblr and Instagram, various chat groups like Kik, and video sharing sites like BitTorrent.  Regardless of the means used to access pornography one thing remains constant. No matter how careful a person in when trying to cover up their digital footprint, chances are a good forensic analyst will be able to uncover that which is meant to stay private.

Child pornography is always illegal to receive, possess, distribute, or manufacture.  Many people believe that if they delete images on their phone or computer, these images are really deleted. However, simply hitting delete rarely actually destroys the evidence. If this were true, then nearly all child pornography cases would be based on destroyed evidence.  One place such deleted images may reside is in a computer’s cache or temporary memory.

What is a cache?

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Sex crime allegations in Michigan are taken very seriously by law enforcement. Due to the specialized nature of these cases many police departments have officers and detectives with in depth training specific to the investigation of sex crime cases. The same is true for lawyers who work with the police departs to prosecute sex crime cases. In fact, many of the larger counties have specific teams of prosecutors who exclusively handle sex crimes cases. For example, the Wayne County Prosecutor has the Sexual Assault Team, and the Oakland County Prosecutor has the Special Victim Section (SVS).

On the west side of Michigan, Kent County does not have a specially named division in the prosecutor’s office, but that office does designate a few attorneys within the office to handle most of the sex crimes cases in the county.

To combat these highly specialized sex crime teams at the various prosecuting attorney’s offices throughout the State of Michigan, the Barone Defense Firm has assembled a team of sex crimes lawyers to go head to head with the prosecutors.

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Recently, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency completed a sweep that lead to arrests of 24 people in Michigan convicted of various crimes. It is no secret that the Trump administration has taken a tough stance on immigration. As a result, there has been a focus by the Trump administration on deporting non-citizens with certain kinds of criminal convictions.

What kinds of convictions can lead to deportation?

Federal law says that a non-citizen can be deported for conviction of a “crime of moral turpitude” or an “aggravated felony.” A crime of moral turpitude is one that involves a depraved or immoral act, or a violation of the basic duties owed to fellow man, or a “reprehensible act” with a mens rea of at least recklessness. In practice, this means crimes involving fraud, intentional serious injury, intentional death, destruction of property, malicious destruction of property, and intentional permanent taking of valuable property are deportable. This, of course, encompasses many possible crimes.

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Fear of the Covid 19 virus means more people are spending time at home, often alone, in front of their phones or computers. Unfortunately, some of those people are sexual predators looking for their next sex crimes victim. According to news sources, this means that the risk of sexual predators finding victims is also increased.

How are Sexual Predators Finding their Victims?

Sexual predators use various tactics to gain access to and communicate with their targets online. One of the biggest threats comes from communicating with potential victims through apps and sites that children and young adults use most frequently- YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and Facebook. Once a predator is connected to a potential victim, some purport to be someone else by using a profile picture that looks like someone the same age as the victim. Once a predator is connected to a victim, the predator usually aims to elicit sexual photos from the victim and, potentially, meet the victim in person.

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The Sex Offenders Registration Act is known as SORA.  SORA was enacted pursuant to the legislature’s exercise of police power of the state.  Its intent is to monitor persons that are believed to pose a potential danger to the people of the state. Sora is a database that contains the names and addresses of individuals convicted of certain sex crimes. In Michigan, the Michigan State Police (MSP) is the agency established by the Act to be the keeper of the registry and repository.  The Michigan State Police local posts, and other local county and city/township law enforcement agencies, serve as the locations for the offender to register.  The frequency of reporting, the number of years of reporting, and whether the information is public or private, is dependent upon the type of conviction for the offender and is categorized by Tiers.

What are Tiers?

In Michigan, sex crime offenses are categorized into three Tiers.  Tier 1 is the least serious, and Tier 3 is the most serious.  The more serious the offense, the more frequent and longer the individual is required to report/register.

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The short answer is – immediately.  When it comes to sex crimes in Michigan, you should never take a “wait and see” approach. Sex crimes are taken very seriously in Michigan and carry with them severe penalties including long periods of incarceration.

Plus, sex crimes investigations are often extensive and could take weeks or months before any official charges are authorized. Authorized means an official charge against you, which usually begins when the investigating officer submitting their findings or report to the county prosecutor to review and approve, or authorize.  If the prosecutor approves, the officer will then appear in court before a Judge or Magistrate and “swears to” a warrant for your arrest.  Once the Judge or Magistrate sign it, there will now be a Felony Arrest Warrant for you.

If you have done something that might make you susceptible to a Criminal Sexual Conduct (CSC) charge, or other sex crime or assault, if you are suspicious that someone may be making a complaint against you, and certainly if you have been contacted by police or law enforcement, you must consult and retain an experienced assault and sex crime attorney immediately.

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Federal Eastern District Court for Michigan has courthouses located in Ann Arbor, Flint, Port Huron, and Bay City, whereas the Western District Court has courthouses located also in in Lansing, Kalamazoo and Marquette in Michigan's upper peninsula. View More

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